Thursday, June 14, 2012

A Flatlander's Adventures in 'Frisco Hill Walking.....




Just a quick blog post to upload more photographs from our recent trip to the lovely metropolis of San Francisco.  Hiking in the S.F. highlands is what we were doing exactly 2 weeks ago today (what, has it really been 2 whole weeks ALREADY...?  That seems wrong!).    Born and bred as I've been in the glacially flattened, pancaked lands of Illinois, I can get very geeked out by rolling landscapes.  Not to mention the presence of vast bodies of water (like, the OCEAN for example).  So I just couldn't resist taking lots of pics while cruising on foot through S.F.'s hilly neighborhoods.....:


So many gorgeous houses -- this one was a beautiful, hilltop Greek Revival mansion we passed along the way.


Traipsing down a steep decline -- this flat picture just doesn't portray how steep it really was.  But trust me, it was!  (Note in the distance, under the blue sky, a strip of blue that is distant mountains, and under that another strip of blue that is the San Francisco Bay).....


Again, I snapped a photo because I was impressed with how steep this hill was going down -- which just ISN'T portrayed in this flat pic!  But those stair steps you see here to the left are the only level part of the sidewalk, and all the parked cars are on a tilt as you walk by (and again, that's the S.F. Bay in the background -- such a beautiful view).....




So not only do residents have to navigate a lot of hills in their fair city, they also have to navigate lots of stairs!  (I took this pic because it's typical of the entrances to the row houses that blanket the city block after block.  In this case one has to climb a steep hill to get to the house, then climb a steep fight of stairs to get to the entrance, and in the case of the dweller of the 3rd Floor apartment on the left, climb yet ANOTHER very long and steep flight of stairs just to get to one's door).....



After climbing up this steep hill (huff puff!) I turned around and snapped this pic of the S.F. skyline in the distance (that little 'point' you can see on the skyline in the middle is the iconic Transamerica Pyramid building in the downtown's financial district....



 A stately, grand Queen Anne-style  row house, nearly 6,000 square feet of living space and a survivor of the '06 Quake and Fires.  I took a picture of it because my daughter and I were actually invited to GO INSIDE it as we were  leisurely strolling by, as the owners were having an estate sale, of sorts.  Well omg, as anyone who knows me, I absolutely love ANY opportunity to go inside old, beautiful houses -- what a treat!  (And yes, while we didn't see the whole house, it was still just as amazing inside as you could probably imagine)......


Another attempt to capture a very steep hill.  I guess you can kind of, sort of get an idea...., though not really.  Sigh, oh well!  (also, you can't at all tell from the picture here, but in real life that little gap on the horizon between the blue house on the left and the tree in the foreground is a view of the Golden Gate Bridge (it was very clear and obvious in real life -- though the camera couldn't quite pic it up!)......






So, I'm almost finished with the uploading and blogging of my trip pics (coming up next time: Alcatraz....!).




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